Largest African-American Video Oral History Archive Headed to Chicago Public Library This Summer

April 21, 2017

The History Makers, the Nation’s largest African American video oral history archive, is making its collection available on-line through the Chicago Public Library starting this summer.

The History Makers series has more than 9,000 hours of interviews with influential African Americans housed at the Library of Congress – 500 of them are from Chicago. WBBM’s Mike Krauser reports.

The founder of the History Makers series, Juliana Richardson sees the archive as a source of pride for young people who would benefit from knowing the stories of influential African Americans. She believes it can play a role in turning young people away from violence.

“No one seems to be able to solve it, but at the same time I think our archives provide a playbook for Chicago,” Richardson said. “Not perfect, there was never a perfect Chicago, nut the black community there was a more vibrant black community that existed.”

Richardson said young people need to know the rich history, that she said, is becoming more of a faint memory.